> Still not seeing how "this kind of study can never ascend to the level of discipline (née science)" is something that can be stated without any supporting argument.
If you understood the basics of science, you would know what's missing from an opinion article that picks a quantity at random and discovers a correlation with something else, but without a testable theory about how they might have something to do with each other.
Science requires something, that something can be expressed in s single word, and once that word is uttered, all who hear it will realize why this kind of article cannot represent science. And I am astonished by how few people know this requirement of scientific practice.
Science isn't the answer to the world's problems, but for certain problems, it has no meaningful substitute.
As a thought experiment, just imagine Max Planck, Werner Heisenberg, and Richard Feynman gathering their teams together in a room for a major announcement.
All three scientists have reached a unanimous conclusion. Each time they try to measure some aspect of an atom, their results are inconsistent! They declare to to their teams that this cannot be real science. After all, we need reliable measurements in order to do science. So let’s not waste our time any longer. Go home, get some rest, and come back tomorrow. And please take a moment to review the equations governing the path of flying baseballs. We think this merits a second look.
Fortunately history tells a different story.
By the way, I’d highly recommend reading the outstanding book “Quantum Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum” by Leonard Susskind of Stanford. If you’ve seen a matrix before, then you’re good to go (with some effort). He walks you through the rest.
As a fair warning, try to mentally prepare yourself. Your seemingly rational & logical viewpoints, while admirable, will be shattered one by one. And you’ll see that even our precious boolean logic is merely an illusion.
EDIT: Oops. Wrong level. This reply was geared to downandout in above thread. Apologies.
If you understood the basics of science, you would know what's missing from an opinion article that picks a quantity at random and discovers a correlation with something else, but without a testable theory about how they might have something to do with each other.
Science requires something, that something can be expressed in s single word, and once that word is uttered, all who hear it will realize why this kind of article cannot represent science. And I am astonished by how few people know this requirement of scientific practice.
Science isn't the answer to the world's problems, but for certain problems, it has no meaningful substitute.